A Market Samurai Rank Tracker Question…

“Hi I was wondering what the red numbers in the Rank Tracker tab of market samurai mean. Sometimes they’re green other times red and sometimes in bold. I’ve searched everywhere and can’t seem to work them out.”

I had a lot of trouble getting any red up at all, I’m either ranking well, or not ranking at all (which is a sign of an authority site) – I do have this visual example.

The Red colouring is there to identify clear weaknesses and negative moves. If you aren’t ranking in the top 600 broad match (approx) then clearly your site isn’t even being considered by the search engine – also if you have had backwards movement, that’s also indicative of a problem.

I disagree with the trigger point for this colouration. I personal believe if your site isn’t in the top 100 you aren’t receiving any SEO recognition on that phrase, and on “Phrase Match” search you would need to be in the top 25 before you could claim any search engine traction.

Which brings me to an interesting point…

Phrase match rankings should only be used as an indication of future potential rankings. They have no other value.

If you have decent optimization you should be able to appear in the top 100 results for any phrase in any market (Obviously the most competitive markets require your site to have existing authority, but you can still rank highly overnight)

If you have a question – try “Ask Vince” – or if your question relates to this post, please comment on this post.

“Phrase match rankings should only be used as an indication of future potential rankings. They have no other value”.

What should we be tracking or looking out for in the “phrase match” serp rank to garner some insights about future rankings?

I think there is also a world of confusion amongst new marketers when it comes to broad and phrase match in general and it’s impact. PPC overlapping with SEO references to the two, I think cause the most confusion.

I sometimes track phrase match rankings, but really its better just to focus on broad match rankings and wait for things to materialise. The insights you can get from tracking phrase match are brief and inaccurate.